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QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“Why wouldn’t they have a number? Why don’t they have a percentage in mind or a number that they think is justified? Why don’t they have that? Why aren’t they willing to say that? Like, yeah, you all owe us $10. Why are they being cagey about that? Because it’s a shakedown.” —Marc Maron on patent trolls, This American Life.

“That’s right. I saw those guys doing it, and I was like, ‘Ah, it’s easy. You make a bunch of horrific jokes, every 15 minutes maybe there’s a genuine laugh, you call it a movie.’” —Garry Marshall (Paul F. Tompkins) describes the influence of Airplane! on his own films, Comedy Bang! Bang!

“Don’t touch anything in New York [City]. Bathe yourself in hand sanitizer, and wear a hazmat suit everywhere you go. And when you’re in a taxicab, put a little napkin down with a doily on it, like I do, before you sit down. And before you touch the handles of the taxicab, anything like that, before you even touch the money in your pocket, pray.” —Greg Proops, The Smartest Man In The World

“My uncle came back from Vietnam and joined a cult. I was really young, so all I heard was, ‘Your uncle has joined a cult that worships penises,’ and that’s the only explanation I got. Now that I’m older, I’m thinking, ‘not a bad cult.’”
“You know what else that’s called? A fraternity. He may have just gone back to school. You don’t know.” —Dave Anthony and Greg Behrendt, Walking The Room

NEW TO US

The Indoor KidsAny podcast community with the word “geek” or “nerd” in the title must have a show that addresses the growing industry of video games and the gaming culture. So naturally, Nerdist has just such a show under its umbrella. However—unlike other video-game podcasts that give the mic to a games journalist who equates playing a disappointing game with symptoms of dysentery or a former industry insider interviewing other industry insiders who can’t discuss anything newsworthy because they are both under non-disclosure agreements—The Indoor Kids lets two video-game fans talk about the games they are playing and the latest video-game news with their funny and/or well-informed friends.

Comedy couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon take a loose approach to discussing games with a roster of game-centric guests such as former G4 host Kevin Pereira and Gears Of War: Judgment writer Tom Bissell as well as some professional funny people who also have a love of shooting virtual villains such as Jake Fogelnest, Steve Agee, and Aisha Tyler. Generally, the topics discussed tend to arise out of organic conversation rather than a structured set of news and views segments with their own pre-recorded bumpers that section off or categorize each part of the show like a Whitman’s Sampler of podcast topics. It gives them more opportunities to improvise riffs and jabs on the games that they are playing, the news of the week, and one another.

Their recent sit-down with Pereira included a thorough review of Microsoft’s official Xbox One reveal introduced with the supercut video of the word "TV" being repeated as if the people who wrote that script were playing a drinking game backstage. Eventually, their talk led to a thought-provoking discussion about the potential for corporate malfeasance and privacy invasion against their customers if their Kinect technology turns into a real life HAL 2000 that can hear everything their customers are saying and gauge their reactions to certain ads or games. It also created some funny opportunities for Gordon to imagine how the new Xbox would interpret her mother’s thick Southern accent and caused Pereira and Nanjiani to ponder if it could recognize Internet search commands such as “Xbox: Goatse” (don’t Google it, seriously). The Indoor Kids’ focus is first and foremost on gaming and the video-game industry, but the hosts and guests’ natural humor flows directly out of those conversations, observations, and opinions, and they create a vibrant blend of gamer comedy and enlightenment. [DG]

OUTLIER

Actually HappeningActually Happening, a “panel game podcast providing a dose of obscure trivia, historical nonsense and terrible puns,” is billed as “The history podcast that’s too hot for NPR!” but that’s a somewhat misleading description. The show does indeed earn its “explicit content” tag with a sprinkling of swear words in each episode, but it’s never edgy in any real sense; rather, it retains the inoffensive, pedantic, and, to a lesser degree, self-satisfied humor of the NPR programs that indulge in comedy at all, along with a strong political bent. At the same time, each episode of Actually Happening is packed with factual and interesting information—or at least enough to keep engaged listeners who aren’t won over by their brand of humor. This is demonstrated well in the most recent episode, in which a nearly unforgivable pun on the word “sack” early on is followed up later with a fascinating historical connection drawn between Superman and the Ku Klux Klan. [CG]

THE BEST

The Best Show On WFMUTo claim Morton Downey Jr. (a.k.a. the godfather of trash TV) had an influence on the “hard G”-rated Best Show initially sounds absurd, but it becomes clear on closer inspection. Despite a kinder, gentler Best Show in recent months, regular listeners will recognize a bit of Downey’s comically abrasive style in Tom Scharpling’s on-air persona when the host is confronted with a bad call or perceived slight. This week’s entertaining interview with Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr.Movie co-director Seth Kramer gives Scharpling an opportunity to indulge his obsession with the late conservative huckster. The pair swap Downey anecdotes and seem to relish finding another person who is equally repulsed and amused by the talk-show host. The rest of the episode is uneven, but the Downey discussion will likely send many listeners to YouTube to explore clips of the anarchic, surreal television show. [TC]

Comedy Bang! Bang! #222: A Peanut In The Rain: Paul F. Tompkins, Gillian Jacobs, Mike HanfordThe saga of Garry Marshall (Paul F. Tompkins) and Gillian Jacobs takes an especially weird turn this week, one that drifts into possibly non-canonical territory when the rich, aged director reveals he’s from another planet and has impregnated his Lady Macbeth with an anus-less alien baby. It’s all fairly typical for Comedy Bang! Bang!, but it takes a turn later in the episode. The Birthday Boys’ Mike Hanford joins as extreme skier Ducky Powell, but Tompkins is at his thorny best, gibing Scott Aukerman for his hosting shortcomings and getting some laughs out of Ducky’s thin raison d’être. (Did he come on just to sing?) A cliffhanger closes things out, so expect another Marshall-Jacobs appearance soon, especially since it’s been announced that Dan Harmon is returning to Community. [KR]

Doug Loves Movies: Dave Foley, Sean Cullen and J.P. Manoux guestDoug Benson brings the show to Toronto, and like most Doug Loves Movies field trips, this means that Benson and guests can pack in some extra chat and a few more games than usual. The crowd is already thrilled to be there, but the audience is especially excited by the introduction of guest Dave Foley. Star Trek Into Darkness talk dominates the chat portion and devolves into some delightful jokes about poop and Zoe Saldana. Foley also tells an amazing story about a double date to a drive-in. After the lively banter session, the audience is treated to about an hour of games, including the recent fan favorite Lincoln or Bane? [MS]

The Flop House#127: Safe HavenEspecially compared to their recent episodes on Playing For Keeps and Smiley, the Flop House hosts remain unusually focused in their analysis of Nicholas Sparks/Lasse Hallström joint Safe Haven, and the episode suffers slightly for it. Their breakdown is still funny and remains as incisive as ever, but it simply doesn’t ever reach the comedic heights of, say, an idea for a Battlestar Galactica/Columbo mash-up involving hunchbacks, or of a pitch for a food product called Bag Of Chili. What does reach those heights this week, however, is a piece of listener-submitted Flop House fan fiction featuring all of the show’s best tropes and recurring gags rolled up into one email, sending the episode out on a very strong note. [CG]

Freakonomics: Should Tipping Be Banned?Dubner and Levitt dive right into the pros and cons of tipping in this longer episode. About 40 billion dollars a year is tipped in the U.S., which means a measurable part of the economy actually runs on the 10 to 20 percent people give to customer-service workers. Tipping also varies on attractiveness of the server, gender, hair color, breast size, and age. Speaking with an expert on tipping, Dubner gets to the bottom of almost every aspect of tipping, including best practices, issues of discrimination, and tipping practices across racial lines. Counter-intuitively, people also don’t really tip more or less due to service, but servers as a group think there is a relation between service and tipping, creating an incentive. Most of the guests on this episode do think tipping should be banned, but that may not sit well with the millions of Americans counting on them for living expenses. [NC]

Hang Up And Listen: The Understandably Quiet EditionThe best episodes of HUAL aren’t the ones that cover the latest goings-on in the playoffs of the NBA or NFL, but the segments that delve into an obscure part of the sports world. This week, it’s the issue of overcrowded Mount Everest expeditions with veteran climber Ed Viesturs. Sure, the NHL discussion is fruitful, and the panel gets to the heart of the real issue behind Roy Hibbert’s homophobic comment in a press conference, but the Everest conversation is something you won’t hear anywhere else. The proliferation of expedition and climbing tourism is beneficial in the sense that it offers the chance for more people to experience wondrous natural locations, but at the cost of taking away some of that untouched beauty, and Viesturs has a unique expertise on the subject. [KM]

Improv4Humans: #83: Driving Yellow Jackets: Andy Daly, Brian Huskey, Katie DippoldMatt Besser is joined by Andy Daly, Parks And Rec writer Katie Dippold, and Brian Huskey (a.k.a. The Onion News Network’s worthless pundit Duncan Birch) for a banner episode even better than last week’s glorious Amy Poehler-fest. The banter is ace and starts incredibly strong with a loose conversation about sports that leads to a scene that would feel right at home on Home Movie’s soccer field, only more insane. Rolling along, the episode’s scenes continue to build toward absurd heights, most noticeably in the introduction of Two Minute Tony, a hack comedian shot into sitcom stardom for his habit of going two minutes over his time limit. Best of all, Besser and Daly take a moment near the end to dramatically read a bitter and questionably sarcastic Twitter exchange between Michael Ian Black and Marc Maron. From front to back, this is as must-listen as Improv4Humans gets. [MK]

Judge John Hodgman: Uniform Code of Podcast JusticeIs it necessary to wear a full Phillies ensemble to a Dodgers-Reds game? Jeremy claims his friend Paul is acting in bad taste when he wears his favorite sports team’s gear—both jersey and hat—to sporting events when the team isn’t playing. Paul feels he is showing appropriate team spirit and exercising his American rights. “Sports fans are annoying enough,” argues the plaintiff in a prepared statement. “We don’t need to be more annoying by introducing third-party conflict into a two-party system… My case is that Paul’s actions are an affront to sports fandom and an embarrassment to team allegiance everywhere.” Hodgman, a confessed sports illiterate who isn’t entirely uninformed, relishes the opportunity to become “a nerd bully” and boss around the articulate, reasonable parties. After hearing both arguments and coaxing out essential contextual details, the judge hands down an informed ruling on the matter. All grandstand conflicts should be settled so amiably. [DXF]

The J.V. Club #64: Christina JasbergJanet Varney references two classic episodes of the podcast during her interview with high-school friend Christina Jasberg, and the conversation plays out like a mix of Julian Melson and Maria Bamford’s visits to the show. Jasberg and Melson both have a long and close relationship with the host, and Jasberg has had to deal with similar mental health issues as Bamford, albeit more severe ones. The daughter of a father with schizoaffective disorder, Jasberg had a tumultuous home life that pushed her to strive for perfection as an adolescent. Stress from home and school built up and began to affect her physical and mental health as she developed eating disorders and began to cut herself, all the while beginning to show symptoms of her father’s illness. It’s a harrowing episode about understanding the need for treatment and being open to accepting help that is lightened by the comic chemistry the two women have built over time. Their conversation exemplifies what this show does best: looking at a serious topic through a lens that is casual, welcoming, and consistently entertaining. [OS]

Monday Morning PodcastAlthough Bill Burr reiterates nearly verbatim his analysis from last week on the playing style of Pittsburgh Penguins player Matt Cooke, he nevertheless manages to come up for air out from beneath the ocean of repetition and dullness through which the Monday Morning Podcast has slowly drifted in the past few weeks. He does this first by doing some riffing on a story about population issues in China, and second by calling out a listener who writes an exceptionally distasteful email, both of which are interesting, but far from funniest things he’s ever done. It’s an uneven episode and with its share of low points, but still very much a step in the right direction. [CG]

My Brother, My Brother And Me#155: Face 2 Face 6: MaxFunCon 2013It seems to be difficult for many podcasters to transition from the intimacy of the studio to the big-time feel of a performance venue for a live broadcast. And for good reason: One of the most enjoyable aspects of listening to a podcast is the sense that you’re privy to a private conversation. The McElroy brothers don’t really have that problem, in part because their job as hosts of an advice show is to constantly talk to the audience, and in part because they just naturally seem to be a bunch of hams. That’s by no means a slight against them. On the contrary, their ability to connect with the MaxFunCon audience from the get-go eliminates the awkwardness that pervades so many other live shows and makes even the dud gags feel endearing rather than lame. Even by the criteria of a normal episode, however, this one sees the brothers in fine form. The “Farm Wisdom” routine proves to have surprising longevity, and their riff on Innerspace is a classic example of what’s great about MBMBAM humor. [AB]

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Nerdist #364: Josh HommeThe Nerdist crew catches Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme right before an album release, but thankfully, the episode avoids all of the clichés and talking points of the typical new-record press cycle. Homme has a really fun and easy-going personality that comes through while goofing off with Hardwick, Jonah Ray, and Matt Mira. It may also be the only podcast featuring some indepth analysis of Bill Murray, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s film oeuvre, and some off-color anecdotes about GG Allin. The exceedingly likable Homme also tells some tales of growing up in his bizarre, California desert hometown. [MS]

Professor Blastoff#107: StressThe hosts jump right into the topic this week, but given the first half’s meandering gripe session that borders on first-world problems, it’s worth it to wait on the Professor. The episode starts to congeal around the midpoint, though—once the previously coy Tig Notaro opens up about the effect her health issues have had on her psyche—and the hosts start to hit upon some deep and relatable emotional notes, whether from personal reveals or methods to reduce and relieve stress. (David Huntsberger’s interview skills are at their best here, too.) The past few episodes have seen the hosts more willing to let heavier topics dictate mood, and while that relegates the comedy to a self-referential afterthought, it’s a fair trade for a meaningful discussion. Anyone invested in the hosts’ personal lives has a lot to gain from this installment. [SM]

Sklarbro Country#149: C’mon Big Man: Chris Tallman, Chris CoxActor/comedian Chris Tallman is mainly a comic actor and sketch performer, but he’s shown up in some strange places in dramatic roles. The most intriguing was Rescue Dawn, the prison-break movie Werner Herzog shot based on his own documentary. The Sklars get great information out of Tallman about the shoot in Thailand, going out drinking with Christian Bale, and getting propositioned by an underage male prostitute. Chris Cox plays Tiger Woods in the episode-capping phone call as the Sklars continue to unpack the controversy over Sergio Garcia’s ignorant comments. Golf doesn’t usually yield this kind of material, but a press-conference mishap like Garcia’s doesn’t come around very often. [KM]

Sklarbro CountrySklarbro County #54: Joe Mande, James Adomian, Dan Van KirkJoe Mande’s claim to fame, other than being a writer for Parks And Recreation, is his Twitter beef with former NBA star Gilbert Arenas, which he discussed on his previous visit to the Sklar brothers’ podcast. But he’s got plenty more to talk about, including juggling his writing duties while performing as a stand-up. He and the Sklars riff on Dan Van Kirk’s news stories, including a 19-year-old Alabama model who faked a rape in an attempt to win back her ex-boyfriend, and two older men who have a disgusting roommate argument. The Jesse Ventura phone call at the end of the episode doesn’t yield many laughs, but Mande adds another witty voice to the show. [KM]

The Smartest Man in the World: SkiesTechnical issues derail this week’s episode as a document of Proops’ recent Brooklyn taping, but the gremlins can’t stop the ’cast. Proops proves he can deliver without an audience, re-staging the monologue in his living room. The host makes up for the lack of crowd interaction by reading listener emails, which leads to his explanation of why podcasting matters. Then Proops ranks recent U.S. presidents in terms of starting wars, displaying empathy, employing humor, and being a moron. Other passing references and topics include James Joyce, H.P. Lovecraft, universal healthcare, and abortion. With no crowd, the broad audio essay is almost too dense for its own good. But the segment still succeeds because, like most good podcasts, this abbreviated episode represents an organized presentation of ideas; it’s not just someone talking for 45 minutes. [DXF]

Sound Opinions #392: Johnny Cash’s At Folsom PrisonJohnny Cash’s live album At Folsom Prison was released 45 years ago, and it endures as a classic of the genre today. Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot do a masterful job of digging deeper than the setpiece from Walk The Line in the return of their Classic Album Dissection segment. They break down the context of the album—Cash had been performing in prisons for years before finally convincing a label to release an album of songs performed there—its legacy, and the brilliant songs by Shel Silverstein that Cash covered at Folsom and his subsequent live album At San Quentin. [KM]

Stuff You Missed In History Class: The Phoenician AlphabetThe complex history of modern language is a lot to wrap one’s mind around, but the hosts of SYMIHC root the idea in the Phoenician alphabet and make the topic an easy one to digest. The story of the alphabet begins along the coast of modern day Syria and Palestine, where Phoenicia was a merchant civilization credited with ancient innovations including the invention of glass. Mostly written from left to right in its early days, it evolved into new languages and developed new spaces, dots, and slashes as the Mediterranean civilization traded with the area. Hosts Holly Frey and Tracy V. Wilson avoid the potential trap of being too technical by focusing on the unique voyages of ships and other eventful benchmarks of the language. It’s more of an engaging and enjoyable story than a skeptical listener might expect. [DT]

Stuff You Should Know: What Happened To The Lost Colony At Roanoke?SYSK usually leaves historical subjects to their sister show SYMIHC, but this week hosts Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant examine the infamous lost colony at Roanoke with breezy and enjoyable results. It starts off like any other scary colonial tale; founded in 1585 by the wealthy Sir Walter Raleigh, the English settlement encountered extreme hardships under Governor John White. After seeking assistance from England, White returned after three years to find the colony had vanished. Clark and Bryant chide the flakiness of White, who all but abandoned his search after a short time and made little to no effort when following up on clues. Other than a blonde Native American child spotted in the Croatoan area, Roanoke remained a mystery for decades. Clark and Bryant stick to the script less than their SYMIHC cohorts would, and it helps historical accounts linger in the mind of the listener. [DT]

Stuff You Should Know: How Coffins WorkLeaning on the inspiration of HBO’s Six Feet Under as a tonal guide, hosts Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant dig up a wealth of fascinating coffin minutia. Known more politely as caskets in the American undertaking industry, they vary from pure metal to “technically still a coffin” shrouds. The industry comes off less empathetic than it would like under this amusing scrutiny: The costs of even the most basic coffin will hit a listener’s ear with a thud, the terminology used in a typical funeral home sounds all too entrepreneurial, and the history of burying bodies in the 19th century will likely inspire more than a few cremation plans. But Clark and Bryant are reliably whimsical in their discussion, and even present an appealing green burial alternative than Bryant seems keen to use for himself. [DT]

This American Life#496: When Patents Attack...Part Two!With the addition of a brilliant new Second Act, correspondents Adam Davidson and Laura Sydell update their original investigation into the United States patent system and find answers to many of the questions they were left with two years ago. The result is an essential hour of radio that ranks among the best that TAL has produced, a compelling piece of in-depth reporting that shows just the extent to which patent trolls have built a business model around stifling innovation and extorting inventors while not producing or creating anything themselves. If the original piece highlighted the problems in a deeply flawed system, the full story revealed by years of additional reporting demonstrates that they system is badly broken and in desperate need of reform. [DF]

The Todd Glass Show #105: Andy DickLike many episodes of The Todd Glass Show, Glass spends almost about 45 minutes goofing off before the featured guest even arrives. This is fine because this time, Glass has a full band at his disposal and he’s clearly having fun with it, especially when he is parodying Paul Anka’s famous tantrum. The Anka-style meltdown happens several times and the bit gets more intense each time, much to the delight of the in-house audience. Eventually, professional train wreck Andy Dick shows up and he vacillates between his trademark hyperactive silliness and honest, heartfelt reflection over some of the darker patches of his life. [MS]

Walking The Room#153: Bukowski Girlfriends and Pinecone ManThis week has all the makings of a classic episode of Walking The Room, from Dave Anthony’s excellent return to an overarching sense of continuity, but mostly it’s just chock-full of some potentially stage-worthy material. TIVO advertorials aside, the first segment contains some A-plus riffs, the best of which focuses Greg Behrendt’s hobotang/Bukowski-esque neighbors, Anthony’s uncle’s cult, bewilderment at The Rock’s arms, and an alternate version of the IDF. Plus, it’s always promising whenever Behrendt relieves Anthony of his storytelling load, allowing him to pop off a series of embittered one-liners and angry rants at sequel scribe Craig Mazin. One of the more surreal moments they’ve created comes with Behrendt’s reading of a series of nonsensical comments left on his Facebook page by a Bradley Cooper-stalking Brazilian woman (with the lyrics from Dave Anthony the rapper a distant second.) Lastly, Anthony shares his son’s inquisitive and shanky reaction to having his blood taken and tales of the ultimate joyride. [SM]

WTF#393: Phil HendrieRadio is a rapidly decaying medium, in part thanks to the advent of podcasts. But Marc Maron has experience in radio (he freely admits his naïveté when he first started working for Air America), so he’s able to really dig into the history and the current problems of the medium with longtime radio host Phil Hendrie. The two discuss how easy it is to get fired and keep moving in the radio business, how programming has evolved, what it means to like Rush Limbaugh as a radio artist, and how Hendrie got the guest spot as Winston’s radio station boss on New Girl. Even while radio’s market share shrinks by the day, it’s a compelling treatise on how the medium found the bastions of drive time, sports, and conservative talk to continue limping forward. [KM]

You Made It Weird: David AngeloHaving a comedian run through actual stand-up bits doesn’t always bode well for a podcast, but for YMIW it can be a chance for Pete Holmes and a guest to move a discussion along (and riff a lot, of course). He does that just a little here with David Angelo, and it makes for an exploration of two fairly different comic personalities that somehow mesh well. And as usual, just having a good setup between Holmes and the slightly harsher Angelo somehow makes it more engaging when the two delve into more insider-y comedy-history stuff. [SG]

THE REST

The Fogelnest Files #38: Please Don’t Grab a Ukulele: Julieanne SmolinskiBlogger and Twitter personality Julieanne Smolinski’s laid-back affability goes a long way toward making an otherwise unremarkable episode a soothing listen, but there are few moments of actual entertainment here. [AB]

The Mental Illness Happy Hour#116: Meghan ParkanskyListener Meghan Parkansky makes her second appearance on the show with a step-by-step recounting of a mental breakdown. Parkansky’s descriptiveness is both admirable and agonizing, which makes this installment difficult to recommend for new or occasional MIHH listeners. [TC]

The Moth: Bliss Broyard: A Tale Of Two DinnersBliss Broyard recounts trying to figure out whether or not she is black, a story that should be all kinds of compelling but falters under her rushed and flip delivery. [SG]

Nerdist #365: Jesse ThornThe episode is short and tight, but aside from a few fleeting moments, it lacks anything that is truly memorable. [DA]

Never Not Funny#1221: Dropping Names With Dan CroninConan writer Dan Cronin is funny, and the crew has a breezy, amusing chat for nearly two hours, but it’s not essential listening this week. [KR]

Stuff You Missed In History Class: Who Was The Real Robin Hood?Though a fun listen for the curious history novice, the contradictory and well-trod nature of the Robin Hood legend make this episode skippable. [DT]

The Thrilling Adventure Hour#120: The Cross-Time Adventures Of Colonel Tick-TockTAH’s time-travel serial is, perhaps understandably, a bit hard to follow as it skips through historical periods and an elaborately odd cast of characters. In this case, the chronological jumping-around really does burden an otherwise cleverly written installment. [SG]

Uhh Yeah Dude:#374Jonathan Larroquette and Seth Romatelli break out the tinfoil hats for this hour, considering the likelihood and implications of a New World Order headed up by Mark Zuckernerd while discussing how best to suck up to millennials. A spirited, baffled discussion of the Archie-verse offers highlights but this is a heavier episode than most. [CW]

Who Charted? #131: Long-Haired Man-ThingHoward Kremer referring to Mary Lynn Rajskub’s husband as her “man thing” and Rajskub’s subsequent riffing on the term is the high point of this otherwise forgettable episode. [MS]

WTF #394: Kevin ChristyKevin Christy seems like a nice guy, but his interview is frankly somewhat bland, as he and Marc Maron only briefly touch upon the most interesting aspects of his life. [CG]

You Made It Weird: Bo BurnhamPete Holmes’ second sit-down with Bo Burnham gets bogged down early in relationship and comedy talk that seems a bit low-level compared to what YMIW is capable of. [SG]